Raila adviser accuses the US of favouring Jubilee in ongoing political grandstanding

-The United States wants Raila Odiga to drop his planned swearing-in ceremony and give dialogue a chance

-NASA has attacked the US of favouring the Jubilee regime in the current political crisis

-The government said the planned swearing-in of Raila does not have legal backing

A war of words has erupted between the National Super Alliance (NASA) and the United States (US) over the prevailing political crisis in the country.

This was sparked off by comments by US acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto in which he called on Raila to cancel his planned swearing in ceremony on December 12 and instead work with the Jubilee administration.

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In a statement seen by TUKO.co.ke, Raila Odinga's adviser Salim Lone accuses the US of failing to condemn police brutality against NASA supporters but instead emboldening it to be more brutal.

Lone said by calling on Raila to drop his planned swearing-in on Tuesday, December 12, the US was in a way supporting the Jubilee regime and endorsing police brutality that may be unleashed during the controversial event.

"Police have in recent weeks brutally attacked NASA supporters while they are assembling peacefully, so this US stand on the swearing in will have further emboldened the regime to once again use on Tuesday the murderous tactics that have been on display recently," he said.

Given the fraught moment, the US statement should have been aimed at building bridges between Kenyans and their two main parties, rather than taking partisan positions which disrespected and further angered more than half our population," he added.

He also took issue with the Trump administration for failing to call out the Jubilee administration when police descended on NASA supporters with brutal force.

"The worst of the many crimes that the US statement did not touch on was the killing of scores of innocent, unarmed NASA supporters in a reign of terror designed to intimidate NASA-leaning communities.

"The US did not condemn the killings, nor demand that they cease. Kenyans expected much more of a nation which put human rights on the world map, and helped other countries set up programmes to promote these rights. Somehow this did not matter this time around in Kenya.

The Kenyan political crisis arose from the disputed and bungled August general election that led to the historic Supreme Court ruling that invalidated Uhuru Kenyatta's victory.

NASA pulled out of the repeat election held on October 26 citing unpreparedness by the IEBC to hold a credible exercise.

The opposition maintains that it won the August election and that the repeat poll that was won by Uhuru was a sham.